Comments on: Secondary Characters: All the Fun, a Lot Less Work

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Wed, 28 May 2025 23:39:28 +0000

In reply to Mica Rossi. Mica, I'd been trying to remember who recommended Five Smooth Stones and I'm so glad to see it was you! Good call about all three of those secondaries; they each had their own unique contribution to the story and they all helped make David's world that much MORE credible.

By: Mica Rossi

Mica Rossi — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:59:43 +0000

I loved the character "Suds" from Five Smooth Stones. He was a secondary character when David was in college and was arguably David's best friend. From David's early life, I loved both his grandfather and the Professor as secondary characters.

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:32:32 +0000

In reply to Lissa Johnston. Lissa, I'm with you in dithering over whether Marcellus would be a primary or secondary...either way, it's clear the story would collapse without him. Although it's hard to envision him winning EITHER Best Actor or Best Supporting, although the award could sure go to whoever does the voiceover if it's ever made into a movie.

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:30:23 +0000

In reply to Tracey Turner. Tracey, you just made Charlotte one of the secondaries who got more than a single mention...and she deserves it. It's cool seeing a secondary who easily fills more than one role in the story; and as a best friend AND contrast to Elizabeth, she's definitely doing her job. :)

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:24:35 +0000

In reply to Heather Lynn Jackson. Heather, Gandalf is a fabulous example of a mentor secondary -- Tolkien had such a great sense of legendary mythology that he imbued it into his characters just beautifully. And there are a lot of ways we see Gandalf contributing to the plot...I sure get the appeal of being like him!

By: Lissa Johnston

Lissa Johnston — Wed, 28 May 2025 15:39:10 +0000

Now this is tricky because with the trend of multiple POV characters, sometimes it's hard to say who's the main and who is secondary. But I will go with Marcellus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. I fell in love with him and was inspired to visit not one but TWO aquariums after reading the book. Glad to see I'm not the only write whose secondary characters try to hijack the story!

By: Tracey Turner

Tracey Turner — Wed, 28 May 2025 07:56:17 +0000

I have a fondness for Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice. She is cast n the best friend role and shares some characteristics with Elizabeth. She uses her head to find a husband because she doesn't want to burden her family and have her own home. She accepts that she will need to make the best of her marriage which is a direct contrast to the heroine. Elizabeth won't settle for anything and as a result her marriage is the opposite of Charlotte's.

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Tue, 27 May 2025 23:37:04 +0000

In reply to Michael Mock. Michael, hurray that you made it in -- now you've got me wanting to reread Faking It; that's been a while! (Although the muffins-doughnuts was a good reminder.) And snarky teenagers DO have an advantage as secondaries, because they can have the same loose-ness as feisty elders. :)

By: Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie Schnebly Campbell — Tue, 27 May 2025 23:31:20 +0000

PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT

Thanks to everyone who posted about memorable secondaries – I’m gonna list all those character names in the June 10 lecture of my class (in the bio) to illustrate what a wide range of “great”s there are!

And with so many posts, I had random-dot-org draw TWO winners of free registration to Those Secondary Characters from June 2-13. Congratulations to #7 (Ilona Bray) and #4 (Debbie Vilardi)...just email me via my website in the bio with the address to send your GroupsIo invitation.

Laurie, thinking random-dot org was very fond of single digits this time around – go figure!

By: Michael Mock

Michael Mock — Tue, 27 May 2025 23:24:53 +0000

All right, now that my browser is no longer refusing to let me see the site... I'm going to nominate Nadine, the teenager from Jennifer Crusie's Faking It. She's quirky, fun, takes to running confidence games like a duck to water, and even has a little bit of her own story arc. She's also the one who gives the speech on muffins and donuts...